Please find below reviews of publications relevant to Gloucestershire Local History.

Many of them have been produced by GLHA member groups. If your group has recently produced a publication that you would like reviewed contact either the Chair chair@gloshistory.org.uk or the website managers webmaster@gloshistory.org.uk

If you would be prepared to review a local history publication for us please contact us.

December 2025
Old Maps of Chalford by members of the Chalford Parish Local History Group: Camilla Boon, Roger Carnt, Heather Collins, Jim Bocock, John Dawson, Peter Drover, Angela Salliss.
Pub. Chalford Parish Local History Group, 2025, 72 pp, many illustrations, b/w or colour according to originals.
Paperback, £10, available at The Chalford Parish Centre; Eastcombe Stores;  Chalford Village Shop; and at Gloucestershire Family History Society at The Heritage Hub

October 2025
Bucknell, Ian, On their shoulders we stand and ring: A social history of bell ringing in the Stroud valleys, 2025, xii+350pp.
£30 plus postage and packing, available from the author – Ian Bucknell email ianbucknell3@gmail.com

June 2025
Diaries of Sir George Dowty:  Summaries and Extracts from the pocket diaries of Sir George Dowty, 1919-1975, edited by Caroline Flippance, who served as Secretary to Sir George Dowty, 1970-1975, and Martin Robins, who served in the Dowty Group Finance Office, 1973-1982, published 2025.
Copies of the book can be obtained at a cost of £13, by emailing martinrobins@btinternet.com

February 2025
Elder, David, Secret Stroud, Amberley Publishing, 2024, £15.99

February 2025
Dobell, Clarence M., Memoirs of Old Charlton Kings – a series of short papers written for the Charlton Kings Parish Magazine, 1896, originally printed by Norman, Sawyer and Co. in 1898. Reprinted by the Charlton Kings Local and Family History Society, 2025. 56 pages, A5, obtainable from Charlton Kings Local and family History Society £8.50 + £3.00 p&p

February 2025
Peart-Binns, J.S., The Cure of Souls – A Great Parish Priest.  Charlton Kings Local and Family History Society.  Not dated.  (£10 (+ £3 p and p) A biography about Robert Deakin, Vicar of St Mary’s, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham between 1949 to 1973.

February 2025
Stevens, Pauline, Ebley, Stroud – Cider Factories, Inns, Laundries, an Orphanage and an Anglo-French Ladies’ College, Stroud Local History Society, 2025, £12 Booze, bricks, books and more – a review by Will Foster

December 2024
White, Martin, The Cotswold Boy: From The Coronation To ‘A Hard Day’s Night’: A Childhood In The 50s And 60s, Published by APS Books Yorkshire, 2024, 194pp including 10pp of b&w illustrations. Paperback, £10.99 (Amazon)

January 2024
Hilltop & Valley: Stories from Chalford Parish & Eastcombe
Members of the Chalford Parish Local History Group, edited by Camilla Boon, Hilary Burgess, Roger Carnt and Peter Drover, pub. Chalford Parish Local History Group (2023), 376pp, many b/w. ill.  Paperback, £10.00.

2023
A Chronology of Trade and Industry in Cheltenham, New edition 2022, compiled by Jill Waller with Sally Self and Sue Rowbotham, published by Cheltenham Local History Society, £10, available via the Society’s website, cheltlocalhistory.org.uk

2022
Return to War. Bisley and Chalford Civil Parishes 1939 – 1945, by Camilla Boon, Roger Carnt, Heather Collins and Peter Drover (Chalford Parish Local History Group). 420pp, including b&w illustrations. Paperback, £10. Available from the Chalford Parish Centre, 50 Geralds Way, Chalford, Stroud GL6 8JF and from the Gloucestershire Family History Society’s shop at The Heritage Hub, Alvin Street, Gloucester. To order a copy by post, contact Roger Carnt on 01453 884247.
The Forest At War. Life in the Forest of Dean during World War One, by members of the
Forest of Dean Local History Society (Forest of Dean Local History Society, 2018).
Editorial team: David Harris, Cecile Hunt, Cheryl Mayo and Keith Walker. 280pp.
Originally £15.00, but now available for £10 from the Society’s website,
https://www.forestofdeanhistory.org.uk
The Story of the Forest. A children’s history of the Forest of Dean, by Andy Seed, illustrated by Ursula Hurst. Published by the Forest of Dean Local History Society in association with Foresters’ Forest, a National Lottery Heritage Funded Landscape Partnership Programme. 60pp. £8.00.

2021
Leckhampton Yesteryear, by Eric Miller (Leckhampton Local History Society, revised edition 2021). 92 pp including b/w illustrations. Paperback, £3.00. Available via the Society’s website (leckhamptonlhs.weebly.com) or from the Suffolk Anthology bookshop, Cheltenham.
Southam & Prestbury, by Michael Cole with Hilary McDaniel Douglas, published for
Prestbury Local History Society by Tatchley Books, Cheltenham, 2020. 204pp. £12.00.
Prestbury Past and Present volume 3, by Norman J. Baker. Published by Prestbury Local History Society, 2021. £12.00.
Minding Their Own Business: Howard Beard investigates some of Stroud’s old shops, by Howard Beard (Stroud Local History Society 2020). 128pp, many b/w and col.ill. Paperback, £10.00.

2020
James Smart of Chalford: Working Life on the Cotswold Canals and Linked Waterways,
by Hugh Conway-Jones (Black Dwarf Publications 2020). 162pp, many b/w and col.ill.
Paperback, £18.00. ISBN: 9781903599 29 7.
The History of Tewkesbury’s War Hospitals 1914-1918. “Alien Duties for the Privileged?”, , by John Dixon, with research assisted by Linda Kean-Price, published by Tewkesbury Historical Society, 2019. 164pp. £17, available from Alison’s Bookshop, High Street, Tewkesbury or www.tewkesburyhistory.org.
More local Oakridge History. Curious, unexpected, remarkable, altered or perhaps simply overlooked?, compiled by the Oakridge History Group, 2019. 31pp. £3.

2019
The Revd John Gibson. Gothic Revivalist: an extended chronology, by Philip J. Wells, privately published, 2017. 52pp. £5.

2018
Prestbury Past and Present volume 2, by Norman J. Baker. Published by Prestbury Local History Society, 2017. £10.00.

March 2017
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February 2016
February 2010
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December 2003
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2002
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April 2001